Known in the art are cribs used as sleeping means for infants, generally from birth until an age of two to three years of age. Conventional cribs typically include a mattress support board adapted to receive and support the crib mattress, as well as a headboard, footboard, and longitudinal side panels forming a boundary enclosing the entire periphery of mattress support board for the purpose of protecting and preventing the infant from rolling off, climbing out or otherwise falling out of the crib into the floor. Moreover, cribs are commonly structured such that the mattress support board may be adjustable in height so as to allow the infant to be placed on the mattress or removed therefrom without undue effort by the parent or the person attending the infant, while ensuring that a sufficiently safe distance is maintained between the mattress and the top portion of the crib.
As an infant grows and matures on through his or her childhood, bedding requirements change, and the appropriate bedding furniture changes from a crib to a different and generally larger bed, such as a youth bed or a twin bed. Twin beds are suitable for persons ranging in size from young children to full-sized adults. In North America, crib mattresses typically are about 27 inches wide and about 52 inches long, while twin bed mattresses typically are about 39 inches wide and about 75 inches long. One drawback associated with the child growing is the cost, time, and effort associated with finding, purchasing, and installing the new bed and to remove, store or discard the crib. One method of addressing these issues consisting in providing and designing convertible bed furniture that may be configured to form either a crib or, as the child grows through childhood, a larger bed.
Numerous attempts have been proposed to provide infant's cribs which are convertible to one or more bed configurations including youth beds, twin beds, and full-sized beds. Examples of such convertible bed systems are disclosed in the following patents and patent applications:
 US 2005/002302 A1U.S. Pat. No. 5,146,631;GB 2,245,825 A;U.S. Pat. No. 5,715,551;U.S. Pat. No. 5,790,994;WO 2010/026665 A1;EP 0,356,277 A1;U.S. Pat. No. 7,712,162 B2.U.S. Pat. No. 5,754,993;JP 2102452;DE 198 48 250 A1;
Although existing convertible cribs may be suitable in some applications, there remain various disadvantages associated therewith. One drawback of many of such designs is that they provide convertible cribs that may convert to full-size or double beds, but not to twin beds. However, twin beds are generally more suitable for young children as they occupy less space in what is often a smaller sized bedroom and are more than sufficiently large for use by a child. For example, known in the art are North American standard cribs having an outside length of about 54 inches and an inside length of about 52 inches, which may be convertible into a double or full-sized bed having an outside width of about 54 inches. For such convertible cribs, the two longitudinal side panels, which extend along the lengthwise direction of the crib for connecting the headboard and footboard thereof, are converted into the headboard and footboard of the bed, respectively, the headboard and footboard of the bed each having a width corresponding to the length of the longitudinal side panel. However, child bedrooms are often too small to accommodate a full-sized bed having a 54-inch outside width.
In view of the above, there exists a need for a crib that can be easily and conveniently converted to a bed having a width that is less than a length of the crib, while also alleviating at least some of the drawbacks of the prior art.